Manage the Size of Outlook PST File by Compacting It

Managing the size of mailbox is essential to make the application go well. MS Outlook is one of the best performing and hence heavily used email clients. Outlook has been drawing attention of millions of users with the introduction of advanced features and enhanced functionality. However, some adverse situations leave negative impact on working process due to long hindrance. PST, the hard-core component of Outlook attracts such conditions in specific circumstances. Let us first take a look at Outlook PST file before discussing the issues Outlook creates and sinks the users into dilemma.

PST, an abbreviation of Personal Storage Table is a personal folders file of Outlook that is responsible for storing all the Outlook mailbox data, inclusive of email messages, contacts, attachments, appointments, journals, notes, any other data items. The problem occurs when PST file that has limited size in different Outlook versions reaches its limit. In this case, the file simply faces corruption and hence users encounter loss of data because they lose access to all Outlook data. Therefore, it is important to keep track of size of the PST file. Moreover, a fully loaded mailbox also affects the performance of Outlook. Therefore, it becomes important to remove all unwanted items that are no longer in use. You need to remove these items from Deleted Items folder as well; however, if you think that it will lead to PST file size reduction, it is entirely wrong.

When you remove items in Outlook, the size of PST file still remains the same until you compact the file. Compacting a PST file removes a good amount of free space and hence file becomes smaller, eliminating size issues as well as Outlook performance problems. When items are deleted from a PST file, an automatic compaction of PST runs in the background while Outlook is running and your computer is not in use. Outlook also allows you to compact a PST file manually; the below given procedure will let you know how to compact PST file.

Step 1: Delete the items in Outlook that you do not have to use in future

Step 2: Click on 'Folder List', located at the bottom of Navigation Pane to open Folder List view. You can also open the list by using CTRL+6

Step 3: Right-click 'Deleted Items' folder and then click on 'Empty Folder'. You can also delete the items one by one

Step 4: Switch to the 'File' tab

Step 5: Click on 'Account Settings' and again click on 'Account Settings'

Step 6: Navigate to the 'Data Files' tab, select a data file that has to be compacted and click it, and then click on 'Settings'

Step 7: Click on 'Compact Now'

You have successfully compacted the PST file. Note that the process might take a few minutes so you need to wait for some time.

Above given procedural steps are all simple to compact a PST, however, you might not get the desired results every time or you may face difficulties while performing the task due to some reasons. In this case, it is a great idea to choose compact PST software program that will automate the task and provide a successfully compacted PST. A recommended tool to compact the PST is Stellar Phoenix Compact PST Software.